


No Place I'd Rather Be

by melted_stars



Series: Winter ATLA Femslash 2021 Prompts [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Baking, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Hair Braiding, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 14:20:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29154939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melted_stars/pseuds/melted_stars
Summary: A morning with the Chieftess of the Northern Water Tribe and her girlfriend *ahem* bodyguard.
Relationships: Suki/Yue (Avatar)
Series: Winter ATLA Femslash 2021 Prompts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2140131
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10
Collections: Winter ATLA Femslash Week 2021





	No Place I'd Rather Be

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the song "Rather Be" by Clean Bandit.
> 
> Side note: I combined the prompts Baking/Domesticity from day 2 and Hair Braiding from day 3 for this fic.

Suki stretches, basking in the golden sunlight and relishing the feel of sore muscles from the previous day’s training contracting and loosening. Her hand wanders across the bed, searching for the other occupant, but meeting only cool sheets. It seems Yue is already awake, and has been for a while.

Suki reluctantly gets out of bed, grabbing a dark green silk robe embroidered with moon flowers that lay crumpled on the ground and slipping it over her sleep clothes. The robe had been a gift from Yue for Suki’s birthday last year, and Suki wore it nearly every morning.

She wanders from the bedroom into the larger common room, both of which are part of Suki and Yue’s shared chambers. Well, more accurately, Yue’s chambers. Suki technically has her own room down the corridor, but she rarely spends time there. The common room is a blend of Yue and Suki’s personalities. There is an armor stand, holding Suki’s official Kyoshi Warrior uniform. Her fans and katana have mounts on the wall for displaying the weapons, but they are more likely to be found on Suki herself. Scattered among the cushions that blanket the floor near the fireplace are several half-read scrolls taken from the library by Yue. There is also a small desk for personal correspondence where Yue writes letters to their friends while Suki sits nearby and interjects with the occasional comment for Yue to include.

Two guards (both chosen by Suki) stand outside the doors, staring stiffly ahead, but faint smiles cross their faces as Suki passes them.

“Hey Aput, Kallik,” Suki greets. “Have you seen the Chieftess around?”

“She told us to tell you that she would be in the kitchens this morning,” Aput answers.

Suki smiles brightly, saying a quick “Thank you” before setting off down the corridor.

The kitchens are located on the second lowest floor of the Northern Water Tribe palace, nestled behind the great hall where meetings and formal meals are held. The lowest floor, situated underground, houses the palace’s extensive library, where, judging by the sheer amount of scrolls in their chambers, only half of its contents still remain, the other half having migrated to Yue and Suki’s chambers.

A short trek brings Suki to one of the kitchen’s service doors. She cracks open the door slowly, the smell of frying fat and warm, yeasty bread beckoning Suki to enter. The kitchen is always a hive of activity in the morning, and only a few people look up as the Chieftess’ personal bodyguard and head of the palace guards steps into the kitchen. Earlier on, when Suki was still new to the palace, almost everyone, whether servant, guard, or council member, would stop and stare at the sight of a female warrior, a novelty in the patriarchal Northern Water Tribe. Suki had worked hard to fight the old guard council members who insisted that women had no place being trained in combat. It was the combination of Suki’s determination (and all of her patience) as well as the reminder that their leader was a woman that forced them to back down and let progress proceed. Although it took some time (Suki was going against hundreds of years of tradition, after all), eventually women came forward who wanted to be trained by Suki. Now, there were nearly as many female palace guards as there were male ones, a fact that always brings Suki no small amount of pride.

Suki spots Yue at one of the many counters, kneading a large blob of dough. Her white hair is pulled back into a neat braid, but strands of hair have escaped to frame her face. She has also changed out of her sleep clothes into a light blue tunic, long sleeves rolled up as works at the dough, paired with loose grey pants. She is so engrossed in her task that she doesn’t notice Suki until Pakak, an older woman who holds the esteemed position of head cook, shouts out a good-natured “Good morning, dear!”

Yue startles at the noise and looks up to see Suki approaching the counter where she is working. A wide grin blooms over her face, an echo of the sun when it begins to peak over the walls of Agna Qel’a, but rivaling the sun in its brightness. Now able to see all of Yue’s face, Suki notices that she has a smudge of flour on her face from where she must have brushed strands of hair aside.

“Good morning, love,” Suki says as she rounds the counter in order to plant a kiss on Yue’s cheek. “You have a bit of flour—” she breaks off as she wipes away the smudge with a finger. “There, got it.”

“Thanks,” Yue smiles. “Did you just get up?”

“Yep, I almost didn’t get out of bed though,” Suki groans, leaning against the counter. “I wouldn’t have if someone was there with me,” Suki adds with a cheeky grin.

“And that is precisely why I get up before you. To give you some motivation. I’m being helpful,” Yue teases.

“More like being cruel. Denying your girlfriend the pleasure of morning cuddles?” Suki shakes her head in mock disappointment. “What kind of person would do that?”

Yue flicks some flour at her. “Oh, stop it. You know better than I do that we spend half our mornings cuddling.”

“That’s still only half,” Suki mumbles under her breath as she attempts to brush flour off of herself. Louder, she asks “What are you making?”

“Garlic and kale bread.”

“Okay, I take back what I said about you being cruel.”

Yue laughs. “Because I’m making your favorite bread?”

“Yes,” Suki answers, completely straight-faced. Yue laughs even more at her response, which may or may not have been Suki’s goal.

“Well, I’m almost done kneading, but this one has to prove for a while yet. Luckily, the loaf I made earlier is almost done cooling.”

Suki steps back, letting Yue finish kneading. Once the dough is safely in a warm drawer to prove, Yue joins Suki at the counter, where two stools have seemingly appeared out of nowhere, probably brought by a servant familiar with their morning routine.

While they wait for the bread to finish cooling, Yue pulls the front of Suki’s short hair back into two braids that wrap around her head, a style suitable for Suki’s morning training. Suki then turns to play around with Yue’s hair, finger-combing it out of its single braid. She decides to go with two braids that join into one as they descend down Yue’s back. This particular style had taken her weeks to master when Yue first introduced her to hair braiding. In the past, Suki had never put much thought into her hair; as long as it was out of her face, she was satisfied. But after seeing the wide variety of hairstyles in the Northern Water Tribe, her curiosity was piqued, and Yue was happy to teach her. Still, her hands are much more used to handling weapons than soft strands of hair, so it had taken her a while to get the hang of it.

Braiding finished, Yue finally deems the bread cool enough to cut. Thick slices are arranged on a plate along with small jars of buffalo yak butter and cloudberry jam. Suki brings over an already prepared tray of assorted fruit imported from the Earth Kingdom as well as a plate of pickled fish. Their breakfast is completed by two steaming cups of tea, jasmine for Yue and a mint green tea for Suki, both blends sent to them regularly by Iroh along with others he wants them to try.

Before she digs in, Suki glances across the counter at Yue, who is meticulously crafting a slice of bread layered in butter, jam, and pickled fish. Yue sensing her gaze, looks over at Suki with a fond smile. No doubt there is a matching one on Suki’s face. The mornings she shares with Yue are among the best of her life. The gentle hum of activity around them, as servants go about preparing the day’s meals. The numerous smells of baking, frying, and grilling food that come together to give the kitchen its comforting aroma. The pleasure of sharing a meal together before the day’s responsibilities call.

“I love you,” Suki says simply. Yue’s eyes soften with affection before she responds.

“I love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Garlic and kale bread is the result of me trying to stick to ingredients traditionally found in the North Pole. Also, Yue is totally a person who would meticulously craft the perfect slice of toast.


End file.
